


Wish Upon A Dying Star

by mirairai



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, How Do I Tag, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Unrequited Love, Why do I always make Ioriku suffer, star tear au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25345357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirairai/pseuds/mirairai
Summary: Love is cruel.Honestly, Iori wished he had never fallen in love in the first place. For all the gentleness and warmth that came would later be replaced by even more pain and hurt. It was entirely comical; the romance movies and novels he had seen and read could never show just how much pain being in love would bring.Although, if Iori were being completely honest, he may just have the worst luck with love in the whole of the century.
Relationships: Izumi Iori/Nanase Riku
Comments: 5
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AHHH this was pain to write qwq
> 
> Thanks to [mezzoforte ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mezzoforte/pseuds/mezzoforte) for beta reading this mess

Love is cruel.

Honestly, Iori wished he had never fallen in love in the first place. For all the gentleness and warmth that came would later be replaced by even more pain and hurt. It was entirely comical; the romance movies and novels he had seen and read could never show just how much pain being in love would bring.

Although, if Iori were being completely honest, he may just have the worst luck with love in the whole of the century.

Star tear disease. An illness so uncommon that Iori had scoured the internet for hours, yet only found one article about it. A sickness centered around one-sided love. Iori, under normal circumstances, would have never believed such illnesses existed; gaining a condition so fatal that you could die or be permanantly incapacitated just because of unrequited feelings was illogical. You couldn’t die of a broken heart.

The moment he met Nanase Riku, thoughts like that were immediately proven wrong.

It was pretty much a known fact that Iori loved cute things. No matter how hard he would try to hide it, that side of him leaked out at times. If Iori had to guess, that's probably where it all started; the amount of thoughts similar in wording to "how cute" or "adorable" directed at IDOLiSH7's center seemed to steadily grow in quantity and there was a point where Iori hadn’t gone an entire day without the thought "Nanase-san is adorable" sitting in the back of his mind. Of course, Iori had only viewed that as simple admiration. He did that for his brother as well - what was the difference?

Apparently, there was a massive difference.

So massive in fact, that when Iori found himself crying from a nightmare one night (the content of which he doesn't remember; but he does vaguely recall yelling Riku's name as he shot out of his sleep), his tears sparkled with colour and fell down his cheeks with a soft twinkling sound left in their wake.

Confusion and panic were the first two emotions Iori felt. What? How? Why? His heart pounded harder and harder with every question that flooded his mind. The silence only seemed to emphasize his panic, Iori's ragged breathing and the soft twinkling of his tears sounded louder than they actually were. He stared down at his hands, stained with rainbow-coloured tears somehow glittering in the darkness of his room.

That was the night he learned about the star tear disease. As well as the night that he swore he would never tell anyone.

He hid his illness relatively well. He was always good at hiding his true feelings. None of IDOLiSH7 seemed to suspect anything, days upon days going by without a single question about his well-being flying his way.

The only one who seemed to suspect anything was Mitsuki. To be fair, Iori had expected that his older brother would be able to see right through him, but it was still much to his displeasure. He'd rather get away without anyone knowing, as it wouldn't end up worrying anyone, but that was hard to do when you lived with a person you grew up with all your life. Iori knew that eventually he would have to tell his brother, and had already come up with a rather long speech.

But that didn't mean Iori was looking forward to telling him.

When he finally did manage to find alone time with Mitsuki, it had taken him a while to get out the words he wanted to say. Iori had planned ahead, sure, but he couldn't possibly have planned for the panic and anxious feelings that would come with it. The two had ended up sitting there in Iori's room for a couple of hours, Mitsuki patiently waiting as Iori tried to say what he wanted to.

When Iori finally managed to utter the words, Mitsuki was understanding, and attempted not to show any excessive emotion. Iori remembered the expression of shock that crossed his brother's face, but it was only for a moment. It quickly switched to concern instead, as he made a promise to support and help Iori with any future decisions related to the disease.

When Iori learned about the serious consequences, he woke up on a normal day, several weeks after his reveal to Mitsuki.

Iori had gotten dressed for school, helped Mitsuki with breakfast, ate some breakfast himself; a completely regular day. Per usual, the rest of IDOLiSH7 walked into the kitchen one by one, the room filling with noise as more people joined in for breakfast.

But when Riku walked into the room and Iori glanced up to greet him, his words caught in his throat. 

The usual bright hair and vibrant eyes of their center had gone gray.

Iori almost dropped the plate he was holding. Questions once again ran through his mind, his grip on the plate grew tighter with every second. Mitsuki beside him noticed, and just slightly nudged Iori to bring him back to reality. The black-haired male managed to catch himself, and gently placed the plate he had finished washing into the dish rack. Noticing that something was most definitely off, Mitsuki attempted to get Iori to sit down and reassured him that he could do the dishes on his own, but Iori insisted on helping. In the end, Iori had ended up finishing up the dishes with Mitsuki before leaving for school with (a still sleepy) Tamaki.

During the day at school, Iori could not see red at all.

The red marker on the white-board, the red exit sign on the walls, and even his own red pen appeared gray to him. Iori hadn't even noticed until Tamaki commented on how Iori had written all of his notes in red, slightly snickering. Iori simply sighed, turning the page and rewriting his notes in what he absolutely knew was a black pen.

Days go by and one by one, Iori loses his ability to see colour. After the red was orange; Mitsuki's hair changed the very next morning to a light gray. That was the day Iori had decided to tell Mitsuki of this new development. Then followed yellow as well as green; Iori couldn't bring himself to practice outside with his brother anymore, as the dull of the buttercups and grass only reminded him of his situation. Mere hours later, Iori could no longer see the bright blue of the sky, nor the soft purple of the heather growing just outside.

Iori almost found it funny. How love, instead of making his world more colourful, had turned his world monochrome. He could only see the world in black and white, like an old stop-motion movie his class had watched one year.

When it all spiralled downhill, a party was happening in the IDOLiSH7 dorms.

That day, Iori had thought there was a very unlikely chance that his tears would spill. It was supposedly a fun occasion, what with it being IDOLiSH7's anniversary party. Not that he could see the bright vibrant colours of the decoration or the cake, but that wouldn't stop him from having at least a little bit of fun. Maybe it would provide him with a distraction from his situation.

Midway through the party, pretty much all of the adults had passed out drunk, save for the managers, who had to drive most of the idols home that night. Iori's eyes were on Riku yet again; if Iori were being honest, he never took his eyes off the redhead unless they had to part ways.

Iori cleaned up the dishes, and simply watched from the kitchen as Riku and Touma (who was one of the only sober adults left) cleaned up the living room from the chaos of the drunk adults. The two conversed and laughed every so often.

For some reason, his eyes stung as he watched. Looking back, Iori might've thought he was jealous - not that he'd ever admit it. He began washing the dishes faster, his tears threatened to spill. Iori laughed, before biting his lip in an attempt to stop his tears from rolling down his cheeks. To cry over this? Iori thought he was losing his mind. They were only talking, he tried to convince himself, they're just talking.

Not even that worked, and Iori had no choice but to rush to his room, his hurried steps not going unnoticed by the other two nearby. Almost immediately after Iori had slammed and locked the door behind him, gentle knocks could be heard from the other side. Iori could hear the calls of both Riku and Touma as their concerned voices reached his ears. He only cried harder, crumpling to the floor. His tears, once colourful to him, fell to the monochrome floor. He cried and cried, not able to stop even if he wanted to.

Moments later, his mind went blank, and Iori fell to the floor, unconscious.

~

"Iori! Iori!"

Iori slowly opened his eyes, almost immediately blinded by the bright white of the ceiling. He slowly sat up and blinked, in confusion. His eyes scanned the room, coming to the realization that he was in the hospital.

Next to him, a bright red-haired male around his age sat in a chair and smiled in relief. "Ah, thank goodness! Everyone was so worried about you! You wouldn't answer the door, even this morning, so we had to get Sogo-san to pick the lock..."

Iori stared at the redhead in confusion. Silence filled the room, and Iori could see the other male grow increasingly uncomfortable under Iori's gaze.

"Iori?"

Iori opened his mouth.

"Who are you?"

The redhead stared back in shock, feelings seemingly in conflict. After what seemed like an eternity the redhead responded.

"Iori, don't you remember? It's me, Nanase Riku."


	2. Chapter 2

"Who are you?"

Those three words caused Riku to stare at Iori in shock. His heart seemed to stop when Iori's eyes stared at his own, thorough confusion reflected in them. Riku frantically scanned Iori's face for any sort of indication that he was just messing with him. That what he just said was a short-lived prank. Although, that may have just been a wishful thought; Iori wasn't the sort of person to joke around. Riku knew at least that much after he spent so much time with Iori as his unit partner.

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Riku carefully responded. "Iori, don't you remember? It's me, Nanase Riku."

Iori continued to stare, still confused. "Nanase Riku...? I don't recall knowing anybody by that name..."

That response only confused Riku more. In an attempt to get Iori to snap out of whatever trance he was in, Riku continued, "We're in the same idol group, IDOLiSH7? We're even in the same unit!"

"IDOLiSH7? Unit? I still don't recall..."

Riku's jaw practically dropped.  _ Iori doesn't remember anything? _

That moment the door swung open and Riku broke his gaze away from Iori as he turned towards the open door. The rest of IDOLiSH7 stood before it, Mitsuki ahead of the group.

Iori glanced at the door as well and gently smiled upon seeing Mitsuki. "Nii-san, good morning."

Mitsuki's expression shifted from worry to relief, a sad smile on his face. He walked into the room, the rest of IDOLiSH7 trailed behind him. "Morning, Iori. Well, more like good evening," Mitsuki chuckled as he glanced out the window at the setting sun before he sat next to Riku in a different chair. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel just fine," Iori responded. He stared at everyone else and the same confusion from earlier flooded his senses. "Nii-san, who did you bring with you?"

Silence filled the room, save for a couple of surprised gasps. Riku caught Mitsuki's face as it shifted to shock, before it readjusted to worry instead. "Iori, you really don't remember...?"

Iori tilted his head in confusion as he thought about whether he had ever met any of the people that stood by his bed other than his brother. He shook his head. "I do not. Sorry, Nii-san," Iori replied before he apologized the moment he noticed Mitsuki's face shift to concern.

"It's fine," Mitsuki assured as he smiled softly. His expression changed to one more somber. "It's not your fault anyway..."

Despite that last part being mumbled under Mitsuki's breath, Riku still heard it. The redhead whipped his head around to Mitsuki, his confused gaze focused on the older. Mitsuki simply glanced at him and waved him off, mouthing the words "I'll tell you later." Although he wanted all of his questions answered, Riku simply nodded and trusted Mitsuki to let him know later. He shifted in his seat and simply watched the Izumi brothers as they conversed.

Riku felt a short and gentle nudge on his shoulder and looked up to see Yamato. The group leader pointed towards the door, where the others (aside from Mitsuki) were already headed. It would appear that they were preparing to leave. Riku was conflicted; he wanted to stay at the hospital, he wanted to stay with Iori, despite his strong hatred for hospitals. But in the end he decided to head off with everybody else. His staying there may only freak Iori out after all. Not that Iori was one to freak out, but still.

After a quick goodbye to both of the Izumi brothers, Riku walked out of the room (albeit reluctantly) with Yamato. The redhead glanced at everyone else and could easily tell that they were worried for Iori.

How could he not remember them?

A few moments later, Riku heard the door to Iori's room click open and turned to see Mitsuki as he exited from the room, waving lightly at Iori before he shut the door behind him. The orange-haired man sighed before he headed over to the others.

It was silent for a few minutes, but with how loud the group usually is it felt like an eternity. Riku uncomfortably shifted and moved his hands to play with the drawstring of his hoodie. As much as he wanted to break the tension and the silence, the redhead couldn't think of anything to say.

Tamaki was the one to break the silent tension. "Mikki, what happened to Iorin?"

An even longer period of silence followed the dreaded question, everyone's eyes on Mitsuki as he struggled to respond. The mentioned male had his eyes on the floor, frantically thinking of a way he could respond. His younger brother's words from before this incident lingered in his ears.

_ "Nii-san, if anything happens, please don’t tell Nanase-san about my feelings." _

_ "Huh? Why not?" _

_ "Because no matter what, I wish to be the one to tell him." _

Every explanation that Mitsuki could think of had him explain Iori's feelings in some way or another and he had promised never to speak a word of that to Riku. The redhead's curious gaze was the one that Mitsuki noticed the most, his fiery red eyes felt as if they had burned a hole through him. It was almost as if Riku was trying to see through him, intentional or not. Although Mitsuki initially said he'd tell Riku about the details of Iori's condition, he couldn't break his promise to his brother.

He'd have to lie.

"Iori said he hadn't been feeling well, but I don't know all the details... He'd been sick for a while, but I didn't think it'd turn out like... this..."

It wasn't a complete lie. Based on what he had managed to find, Mitsuki had found out that star tear disease was extremely rare and had some serious symptoms. One being the loss of colour, an effect that Iori had told him he developed a few weeks later. The other...

Was memory loss.

That symptom was extremely uncommon though. It was said that only the extremely severe cases had it. When Mitsuki had found out, he had informed Iori almost immediately. Such a topic was what brought about Mitsuki's promise. In return, Iori had promised to tell Riku once he managed to rack up enough courage. But time was running out, each day going by with Iori crying colourful tears at least once or twice. Mitsuki was at his wit's end; the worry for his brother took over and he urged Iori to go see a doctor. Iori refused every time and only waited patiently for his brother to slowly stop panicking. He would only reply with a curt "I will tell him."

But now it's too late for that.

The rest of IDOLiSH7 seemed to believe Mitsuki, save for the other two members of the Pythagoras Trio. He should've known; they'd worked together the most and been around each other the longest. Of course they would see right through him. Yamato eyed Mitsuki and his stare practically said what came next.

"We'll talk later, Mitsu."

Riku watched as Mitsuki's eyes widened slightly, before his face shifted to an exasperated expression. "You got it, old man," Mitsuki replied and heaved a sigh. Riku could only cock his head in confusion; he had a feeling that that short exchange between their leader and Mitsuki was important, but he couldn't wrap his head around why.

IDOLiSH7 walked out of the building, but not before they threw on their hats and masks. It wouldn't be ideal for them to be noticed at a hospital, after all. Riku sped up and fell into step with Mitsuki. "Nee, Mitsuki?"

The older male turned toward him. "What's up, Riku?"

"When is Iori getting discharged?"  _ I want to see him again. _

"The doctor said tomorrow."


End file.
